Bewitching
by Jirubee
Summary: The transition into the haunting autumn season brought more than just treats, leaving Kagome and Miroku to wander off in search of a strange presence only they felt. Disbelieving them, Sango and InuYasha plan to play a trick on their companions until something goes horribly wrong.


_**Bewitching **_

The spectrums of light cascaded over the lush greenery of the landscape. Evening was daunting in its approach, swallowing up the murky rays into its shadowy mouth. There was something offputting about that particular evening, and the pair of mystics felt it in their bones.

Kagome felt the disturbance as soon as the moon began climbing the starry ladder to its apex. The dastardly monk had warily eyed her from his stance beside her. There was nothing unusual about the events of the day, or even the overbearing silence from the forest.

The hanyo was skulking, barely paying attention to the pair as he rummaged through the miko's tired and true book-bag. If there had been any real threat, Kagome was sure InuYasha would have expressed his concerns - or _force_ those concerns on them.

Lolling her head back against the coarse oak, Kagome's gray eyes wandered to Sango. She watched her fumble with a water bottle in her _new _clothes and smiled softly. When the seasons began to slip into limbo, the girl had gifted her friend a few outfits to either keep warm, or cool off; depending on Mother Nature's temperment.

Tonight was strange. It was warm, thinly veiled with the nighttime breezes that would often be found in the autumn equinox. The harvest was quickly approaching, and Kagome could only chalk up her wary stance to all of the magic adhered to the seasonal change.

All of the ghosts and formiddable ghouls, that haunted dreams and ate the souls from the slumber bodies, were all apart of the world she lived in. Sengoku Jidai personified the trickery and devilish behaviors that were sought after on All Hallow's Eve.

Blanching, the girl shook her head, finding all eyes pinned to her bemused expression. InuYasha blew his terse bangs from his eyes, clearly wanting to inspect her without any hinderance or blindspots. "What's so fucking funny?" He asked, curling his lip awkwardly.

The houshi looked cautiously in between them, taking the opportunity to skirt closer to his beloved as she tended to the dwindling embers.

Kagome brushed her hand through her gossamer hair, graciously spreading her infectious smile across her cheeks. "It's really silly, InuYasha. I wouldn't worry about it. I was just thinking about the holidays at home." She said gingerly.

The man arched a bushy brow, precariously doting over the way her eyes shown brightly in the dim fire light. Instinctively, his pert ear twitched as he heard her voice rumbled over the rustling of their companions bickering.

"There's a holiday where people celebrate with candy, decorations, and costumes. It's a lot like a festival, but it's one night." The miko explained, making pawing gestures with her hands as her nose crinkled in a juvenile delight. "_And_, ghosts and all sorts of things are said to come out and play while people get into trouble."

That struck a nerve with the hanyou. He already didn't trust the idea of her being in her era without him guarding her every move - let alone on such a dangerous night. A wave of curiousity swam over him at the idea. "So, you're saying that people seem to _enjoy_ all of those horrible things coming after them?" He grimaced, casually inching closer to the girl as she knitted her hands into the cuffs of her sweater.

Sango plucked a hot fish-cake out of her cup of noodles as she watched them out of the corner of her eye. She was always enthralled by Kagome's stories of her world and yearned to be apart of that time - at least once.

Miroku did much of the same as he turned to face the miko, lackadaisically hunched over the staff in his lap. It didn't do much to deter InuYasha from finally plopped down beside the girl as all eyes penetrated him with knowing glances. He could try all he wanted to hide the subtle flush on his cheeks, but they all knew better.

Protecting Kagome was just an extra perk on his list of idealistic ventures, and it was obvious that being able to be within inches of her while she told her talltales made it less awkward.

"Everyone really enjoys it. It's a lot of fun to get to parade around and pretend to be something that you're not." The girl shrugged, finding a twinge of saccherifarious heat riveting her organs with an indulgent tingle. "I wished that we could do that here without people thinking the worst. We've already gone through that!" She exclaimed a bit sarcastically.

"Kagome-chan, don't you think that we still could? It sounds like it would be nice to relax a bit and just not worry for a change. Besides, when we get back to the village, Shippo would probably love to get candy." The eagerly interested woman interjected, absently swatting away her would-be-lover's hands. Obviously, the lecherous bastard thought he could get handsy whenever she wasn't paying attention.

"I suppose it would be nice to bring a few things back with me and at least take a break." The miko agreed wholesomely. The innocent bat of the eyes she sent the man _leaning _perilously close to her made him jerk back with a start.

He instantaneously wrinkled his nose and huffed, barely glancing at her through the crooks in his lashes. Of course he would have to take time away from his objective goal and appease her. Holding his breath, he waited for a moment before he relented. "Keh. I guess if you have to go back for those _tests_ you can bring that shit."

Miroku rolled his dark eyes, blowing a breath into his bangs as he felt a shiver run down his spine. He looked over his shoulder at the darkness that laid around them and furrowed his brows. In that moment, Kagome felt it, too. Maybe she hadn't been imagining it earlier, she deduced.

The kotodama around InuYasha's neck clinked as he steadied himself at the change in their scents. The only one that didn't seem odd was Sango's, as she thumbed through one of those _fashion magazines_ Kagome had given her. The evening wasn't crawling with the deplorable stench of youkai, or any other roaming creatures for that matter. They were near the Aokigahara, and life inside that forest was minute at best.

The hanyou merely chalked it up to having their nerves rattled by the idea of ghosts. No matter how many they encountered, or how many times they had _seen _souls being whisked away by the spectral serpents - brandished by the otherwordly maiden - they were never truly prepared. Humans understood _fear _in a different way, as well as many other emotions that he couldn't gather.

Albeit, he had to give the little taijiya credit for the work she did and how well she had conquered most of hers. She could give a rats-ass half the time and like now, she could care less about the _magic_ teeming around them.

Kagome, on the other hand, had subversively adhered to InuYasha. He was swollen with nervousness - that was one of those emotions he was talking about - as she chewed at her lip hesitantly. If there was anything frightening her, he would make damn sure it was decimated by the tips of his claws or the keen edge of his sword.

Yet, all he could focus on was the soft rap of her heart as she clung to the fabric of his haori. He knew she barely realized what she was doing, especially in the company of others. Miroku seemed stiff, rigid as he pressed himself to his feet to look around.

It was then that Sango's nearly-black eyes rolled over his gritty visage. It was getting darker and all of the silhouettes were more pronounced, leaving their imaginations to color in the blank spaces surrounding them with images of something more sinister.

They're sophmoric behavior started to show tremendously. After all, they were all too young to be delving into the recesses of the hell that they had all been put through, and being afraid of a simple guster of wind was beginning to grate on InuYasha's nerves.

"Okay, seriously." The boy rasped, slapping his clawed hand over his cheek as he shot Kagome a trite glare. "You have to be kidding me."

The girl raised her eyes to his, realizing her cheeks were drenched with color. "W-what...oh..." A puerile smile eased over her lips as she disengaged from his clothing, balling her hands into fists on her jeans. "Gomen."

She was turning into an inelegant young woman, she scowled to herself. Part of her hated how she gravitated to the boy, but she merely shrugged it off as her heart thudded in her chest. He had a lustful look on his face, anyway, she justified.

"Pfft." InuYasha quipped, crading the back of his head with his hands. The sleeves of his haori slid across his forearms, garnering involuntary attention from the girl as she tried to keep her eyes level with the remnants of the fire.

"It's not like there's anything creeping around out there. I could smell it." He said, focusing his tawny eyes on Miroku's searching body, which paced back and forth. His staff jingled in attention at his words.

"You know, InuYasha, there are a lot of things that linger that even _you_ can't sense." He said smoothly, finding Sango's eyes fixed in bewilderment.

"Houshi-sama, are you worried?" She pouted ever so slightly. Hiraikotsu was close behind her and she wasn't bothered in the least.

"Only a little. I don't think think that it's anything truly evil. Mischeivious, maybe." The houshi answered despondently, gripping to the trunk of a time-tested tree.

Kagome nodded, "I've felt it all night. I don't know what it is, but it's something strange. It's just the _feeling _that makes me feel like I should go looking for it. At the same time, I want to stay close to everyone. I don't want to become danger prone like the last time."

"Heh. You're always in danger." InuYasha interjected with a smirk.

Kagome fought the urge to drive her fist into his bouncing knee, but she refrained for fear of him leaping away in madness. He was a drama queen, in her mind. Better yet, the personification of a teenaged boy. "You really want me to use it, don't you?" She said instead, perking a brow at his challenging glance.

"You know, InuYasha, that you'll only make this worse if you don't use those cute little ears of yours to _listen_." Sango said, pointing and bending her index fingers playfully on either side of her head.

The hanyou snorted at her and let out a sigh. "I don't need your shit, Sango. I don't know why you have to be so rude." How pretentious of him, they all thought.

"I'm taking it upon myself to at least give it a quick look and see." Miroku said, poking some of the dying flora with the end of his staff.

"Do you want me to go with you, Miroku-sama?" Kagome asked, pushing herself to her feet. Her hands scraped against the bark on the tree trunk as she straighened out the kinks in her back.

InuYasha took the liberty in watching her twerk through the rift in his ashen bangs. That little flash of exposed skin made his stomach knot and he quickly expressed interest in something else. "You're not going anywhere." He cleared his throat, trying to take his mind off of her pallid skin.

Kagome pulled at the curls that waved through her hair in thought. "No. I think I'll live, InuYasha. Besides, if something eats me you can have _my _reincarnation to do your bidding." It was a bit over the top, and excrutiatingly harsh, but she belonged to _no one._

Sango wrapped her ponytail over her mouth to hide the amalgamated smile-grimace running across her features. She was fairly certain that the rest of the evening was going to be sour, as InuYasha spat out a few choice words that seemingly left Kagome unphased as the boy plummeted into the ground.

The houshi shook his head sympathetically and waved a hand. "Let's go see what this nonsense is all about, shall we?" He beamed brightly as Kagome stumbled over a few loose brambles to catch his arm. Sango's expression faltered a little, but she knew her friend was going to do some of that famous _match-making _that she'd promised her.

Being aware of your feelings happened to be largely obnoxious. And, as they walked away, Sango's eyes pegged InuYasha as he climbed out of his muddy crater. "_So_, how long is it going to take before you go get her?" She asked snidely, somehow growing amused by his utter denial of feelings for Kagome.

Brushing the dirt from his cheeks, he began picking out clumbs of grass and leaves mottling his drapery of white hair. "That monk needs to do something with you. You've turned into a fucking demon, or something." He huffed childishly.

"I can't help that you're turning into a softy." Sango chided, seeing the boy's cheeks offset the color of his pale hair. "You don't have to pretend to hide it, you know?"

InuYasha looked taken-a-back as he slumped down on his bottom, frowning in her general direction. "Hide what?" He scoffed, "You girls are always imaging things."

"Whatever you say, InuYasha." Sango said soundly, brushing her fingers on the damp grass that rested under her. She wiggled in her foreign pair of jeans, trying desperately to erase the caddywompus expression eating at her face.

"I'm not the one that looks like they have a stick up their ass." He teased darkly, pointing a finger at her as she finally adjusted. The fire flickered softly, brandishing them with enough lit to at least illuminate their faces.

"You should try to still save her, or something. She likes being with you, that's pretty obvious. And, from what I can tell you like being around her, too. There's no need in hiding it." The woman shrugged her thin shoulders as she focused on the myriad of emotions flickering in his eyes.

"Hmph, you take your own advice and we'll talk." InuYasha said blankly, finding Sango's oval face contorting. "Now, I don't like talking about this shit."

"I know that." Sango pursed her lips, trying to restrain all of the things that welled up inside of her. She had this almost brotherly relationship with InuYasha, now that they had been stuck together on many occasions. It was to make up for the one that she lost, she supposed. Still, as she drowned in his mockery, a light switched on in her head.

A joyous deterent to talking about _her _feelings for a certain, short-haired, bright-eyed, smooth talking monk. "We should play a trick on them!" She inhaled quietly, careful not to strain his sensitive ears with the high-pitched frequency of the squeal she held in her throat.

"Why the hell would I want to do that?" The hanyou heaved a sigh.

Sango leaned forward on her hands, blinking dumbly at him as to why they _shouldn't_. "InuYasha, we're always struggling and it would be _fun_, wouldn't it? Don't you like to have fun?"

"Since when do you like to have _fun_?"

Grunting, the girl rushed to her feet, trying to remember how to use the zipper on her flimsy pink jacket. "Since Kagome tells me all of the stories about her home. I want to be able to enjoy something like that once in a while." She exclaimed, feeling the rush of adrenaline sweep over her skin like the night breeze.

For a moment, the boy was still, mulling over this wildly asensine concept. Sango was about to give up on the idea when InuYasha let out a resounding, defeated sigh. "_Fine_." There was no moment too exalted to be torn down by that scream she was holding in.

Like a five year old, the girl stamped and clenched her hands together in a small victorious dance. As much as he hated to admit it, he would have been crushed if Sango was upset. It was mainly because she would have told on him in a heart beat and Kagome would have defended _her_. He did care about her well being and overall happiness, despite what everyone thought.

"So, what does this bullshit entail?" InuYasha asked, springing up like a rabbit.

Sango furrowed her brows, sucking in her lower lip in thought. She had this studious expression that always told him that she was up to no good. Kagome had it, too; save for hers just made him need a dip in the river.

"Well, Miro-Houshi-sama," She stumbled over her words, making her skin burst with gooseflesh. "...and Kagome-chan said that they could _feel _something there, not necessarily _see _it."

"And, what? We sneak around and make lots of creept noises until Miroku sucks up in his Kazanna?" InuYasha offered prudently.

"He wouldn't, not with you being able to sense Kagome-chan." Sango replied, beginning her venture through the black arms of tree branches and discolored foliage.

InuYasha muttered something beneath his breath as he stalked behind her, bored out of his mind at her scheming. There was no reason for alert, so he shuffled across the twigs and bones of mouse and owl had tended to. He was completely unphased by the depth of night, while Sango needed guidance from the foreset itself.

She was fairly certains she could come up with a plan, but as they ended up near the meadow leading to a village, she paused. Looking over her shoulder, she moved her mussed hair from her eyes and pointed towards the low hanging lanterns lighting a dirt path.

"There's a village up here," She said in almost awe. The hanyou peeked around her, instantly being hit with the pugent odor of harvest spices and mochi. His stomach growled, leaving him distraught at how easily swayed he was sometimes.

"Obviously."

"You don't have to be so condscending." She piped up, watching a few late night straglers wander about. "I wonder what they're doing out so late. There's a lot of things that could be sneaking up on them right now."

"What, like a hungry half-demon and a batshit insa-" Kagome's scent wafting in the perameter made him rigid as he inhaled, easily making him lose his train of thought.

"What is it?" Sango swallowed, finding unease settling on her for the first time as she inspected the perturbed facade built over his features.

"Something isn't right." InuYasha breathed, itching to grab onto Tessaiga. Sango mentally cursed herself for leaving Hiraikotsu unattended at their makeshift camp. "She isn't wounded, just...her scent just seems _different._"

"Can you pick up Houshi-sama?"

Lunging into the thrush of trees, the hanyou gracefully clung on with his clawed feet. His acute sense of smell was blinded by a faint, almost imperceptible odor. The monk's scent was barely hitting his nose, and Kagome's was much closer than his, making him wonder what had happened.

Looking down at the crown of Sango's worried head, he whistled to her as she peered in his direction in the treetops. "Did you pick up anything else?"

"Go get Hiraikotsu. If anything is coming, I'll be able to get you, but I think you can manage on your own." He said sharply, keeping his keen eyes fixated on the cumbersome village. It was dark save for that path Sango had found, all lit up like a festival night.

He could feel his blood begin to itch as he heard the girl's footsteps become mere patters until they were almost silent. His fingers rolled over the tethered hilt at his waist, as he nimbly latched on as Tessaiga began to stir. It was subtle, leaving question that his miko was in some sort of bind.

Whatever this happening was, he didn't like it - especially the fact that he couldn't smell it, feeling it himself, or make it tangible. Could it have been possible that they had felt actual _magic_? A great many things had happened to them over the course of their travels, but it would have truly been something to sense something as unfathomable as that.

Now he just had to figure out _where _to begin his discovery.

**AN: Like I should even be posting anything else! I have so many things going on! I must say that this little piece came out of the blue, and I really enjoyed it and thought about it all night. I decided to give it a go. So, let me know if I should continue it, or let it be. **

**Thanks for reading! Review! ;D**

**- Jiru**


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